Sera's Celtic Harps kicked off their Silver Elite campaign with two derby wins this past weekend. We beat Freedom FC 1-0 at Celtic Park (Oaks Middle School in Ontario) on Saturday, then beat Foothill Storm, a perennial nemesis, 2-0 in Claremont. The Stopperette had a hand in both goals. Her great switch set up a 1v1 duel on the right side that led to the far post cross for the winner, then a second great switch led to the howitzer that ensured the win. A good start.

We will be at Birmingham HS this Sunday at 10 am if any of the Valley area LARS want to root on the Harps. Future matches will take us to Thousand Oaks, Valencia, Santa Clarita and Santa Barbara. The travel does get longer at this level.

We scored a last-minute goal against Santa Clarita United on Saturday and came into Sunday's game in first place against 2nd place Valley United. Unfortunately, we came away 3-1 losers. We scored first but the ground was pretty bad. The girls seemed very bothered by it. There was a constant cloud of dirt on one part of the field. The other team was very aggressive and seemed to know that the tough ground was their 12th man.

But all three goals conceded came on mental lapses. Valley was pretty good and deserved the win.

My keeper struggled and we had an emotional meltdown from one of our key players as we fell behind 4-0 at halftime vs. a team from Santa Clarita. Had to bench a kid and changed our formation and had to roll the dice with a few kids playing different positions. Our girls started playing great soccer. The Stopperette started the comeback with a chipped left-footer over the keeper. We created enough chances to score, all in the last 20 minutes, but ended up 4-3 losers.

Next day, we went to Thousands Oaks and had to deal with another key player being injured early. We ended up 1-0 winners.

The lucky thing is that the Valley United team that beat us last weekend lost twice in what is becoming a very tight group. Although we let a golden opportunity slip by, we are currently tied for 1st on points, but trail by goals conceded.

NTB still rolling. The pace has slowed since he's been asked to play D a lot. 10 goals in 4 games basically playing half or less of each game as a forward. On the other end he's helped limit goals against to 3 total in the last 3 games. Maybe he's an Omar.

Tough weekend. Good battle with Freedom that ended 0-0. Lost my keeper on a knee-to-knee tackle outside the box and was already down a center back for disciplinary reasons. Lost Sera when she sprained her ankle in a moon bouncer at a birthday party that night. I am not shitting you.

Had a makeshift line up for yesterday's match vs. Foothill Storm. Back up keeper and only two subs on bench. One of my girls went down with a strange intestinal ailment so finished the game with only one on bench. Won it 1-0 and we are currently in 1st by 3 points with 5 tough games to go. Assuming the Stopperette will be out next week but am hoping for a speedy recovery.

Have been having a rough go at it. We had to add two players to our roster as Sera was still recovering from the moon bounce incident. One of my forwards came down with a mysterious stomach ailment--sounds like an ulcer to me. She's been out for three weeks. Two of my key players got hacked two weeks ago and both are out for the season with knee injuries. Same kind of tackle, same kid.

Thankfully, we are still in a tie for 2nd place with two games to go. I need your good vibes. We play at home tomorrow and at Santa Barbara on Sunday. We beat both teams in the first round of play. The team in first plays two very tough teams, including the team tied with us for 2nd. Both teams can't take full points on that one, so if we win twice, 2nd place is possible and 1st place is not improbable. 2nd place wins us promotion for the third time in our three seasons.

And Sera will be making her return.

We managed to earn a spot in the final 16 in League Cup with two convincing wins last Saturday, then we followed that with a fart of a game at Santa Clarita and just barely got a share of the points with a last minute goal. These girls are killing me. So, we have plenty of soccer to play.

We won both games this past weekend and secured a share of 2nd place in silver elite north.

Sera made her return on Saturday and got thumped on the head and hip in a violent and reckless 50-50 challenge. No card, but no real harm. We won 2-1 in a very unsteady performance.

We traveled to Santa Barbara on Sunday and scored twice in the last 8 minutes to win 2-0. Sera got the MLS-type assist on the insurance goal. It was a great game.

So, we have to wait for the outcome of the Freedom v Valley clash due to the rain out. If Valley win or tie, we will have 2nd place free and clear and guaranteed promotion--3 promotions in our 3 years. Good stuff. If Freedom wins, then we share 2nd place. Coast Soccer is vague on tiebreakers. Officially, they award us both 2nd place medals and we both get promoted. However, if spots are limited, and they go with goal diff or least goals, Freedom go through. If head to head determines it, then we go by virtue of our win and draw vs. Freedom. But, again, it is unclear.

Still, after a difficult season, both physically and emotionally, my Celtic Harps made me a proud coach once again.

We ended up with a rematch against our league nemesis Valley United of Van Nuys when Albion FC dropped out to play in a Premier tournament. We decided on dropping the flat back four and going with a sweeper behind three marking backs. My assistant and I figured that would cut down on the open runners finding seams and catching our girls flat-footed. Granted, one of my center backs had been an emotional wreck for much of the season and one of my starting outside backs was hurt when we played them last, but two 3-1 defeats meant we had to try something different.

It worked like a charm. We didn't give up one shot in the run of play and only gave up a handful of corners. And our possession advantage was probably 60-40. But as has been our problem all season, we could not finish off our golden chances. Some were unlucky, like the ball that suddenly bounced up when our striker was in mid-kick. But some were just poor attempts that the keeper dealt with easily.

We ended up losing on PKs. My regular keeper loves PKs and is very good at stopping them. BUT, she is one of the girls that got hurt and was watching from the touchline in crutches. Our two misses were pretty bad, so we are out in the round of 16. The opposing coach was very gracious and admitted that we dominated the game. I'm bummed that we lost but am happy that we finally showed this team what Celtic is made of. As Mexicans like to say, sometimes the better team doesn't win. But the results don't lie--we let them off the hook and paid for it. Oh, well.

Off to the high school season. Sera is still competing for a spot on Rancho United's varsity side at Rancho Cucamonga HS. I will be starting my fourth season with the varsity girls at Ontario HS.

Freedom FC beat a tired Valley United yesterday. So, we tied for 2nd place. Not a bad first season at Silver Elite, but this kind of puts the whole promotion thing in limbo for about 6-7 months. Premier will expand back to 12 teams. Not sure if any of the clubs from the Academy league that are not happy with the new set up will come back and take up Premier slots. If not, then that opens four spots for Gold teams to promote, creating four spots in Gold. At least one team always falls apart, usually the bottom feeder, so maybe five spots open up.